Squad Development 2021

[StringerBellend]

Ill miss the Parklea Messi, not only a great young player, but a very nice guy too

 

[MartinTyler]

Probably a good move for him at this point in his career as he's certainly got ability but not progressing as rapidly as he should be. Might pay to add a "sell on" clause in any transfer deal.

[Hughesy]

He’s done his time, good on him. Other kids in the aleague should be taking note.

[Keithie]

That's good for Baccus, I hope he does not become part of the revolving door , (players who leave Australia with great hopes and return 12 months later without playing much football)

I was hoping we could start to settle a core group of players players for a couple of years and Baccus was an important one. Dorrans and Ugarkovic along with Baccus was going to give us some solidarity in midfield along with Troisi. 

Hope it goes better for him than most. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Keithie

[JustWandering]

He's only 22 (soon to be 23) and is our longest serving current player. Says a lot about the stability of the roster. Sad to see him go, but really hoping he kicks on to bigger and better things. It would be nice if we are looking at him in a few years as the first big success story of our player development pathway.

[Sithslayer1991]

That is the hope you want your players going overseas rather than staying in A-league to haunt us.

[sonar]

I think Baccus has done the right thing by himself in waiting to get senior team experience behind him before making the move OS. It will be less of a culture shock. He will know what it takes to be in a senior squad and has big game ( Derby ) experience. The Olyroos will be a good guide for him. He will get better as the class of players he will be with will be higher ( I assume ).

You wonder at some of the younger players who will go.....ie Kuol.......if they've jumped the gun too early.

I wish him good luck. Been great for us in squads that were not up to par. If he puts in he will go far.

[GunnerWanderer]

Concur youngsters unless they are serious talent like an Arzani (back then) they should be hanging around 

well done to KB 

well deserved 

[Carns]

3 minutes ago, GunnerWanderer said:

Concur youngsters unless they are serious talent like an Arzani (back then) they should be hanging around

What a dud Arzani has turned out to be. Apparently has a terrible attitude and can't get game time.

[Zelinsky]

Six down, six to go.

[Davo]

21 minutes ago, Carns said:

What a dud Arzani has turned out to be. Apparently has a terrible attitude and can't get game time.

I was curious and checked his stats. Since leaving the A-League in 2018 he’s made 18 appearances totalling 747 minutes and scoring one goal. 

For comparison, in his two seasons in the A-League he made 24 appearances totalling 1252 minutes and scored two goals.

[Carns]

14 minutes ago, Davo said:

I was curious and checked his stats. Since leaving the A-League in 2018 he’s made 18 appearances totalling 747 minutes and scoring one goal. 

For comparison, in his two seasons in the A-League he made 24 appearances totalling 1252 minutes and scored two goals.

If he had made a decision like Baccus he probably would've played 80+ games in that time if he stayed fit.

[Davo]

6 minutes ago, Carns said:

If he had made a decision like Baccus he probably would've played 80+ games in that time if he stayed fit.

And it isn’t even one of those things that need the benefit of hindsight to be obvious. At the time he left everyone was saying it was way too early. Even Baccus getting European offers last season was probably too early for him.

[Carns]

11 minutes ago, Davo said:

And it isn’t even one of those things that need the benefit of hindsight to be obvious. At the time he left everyone was saying it was way too early. Even Baccus getting European offers last season was probably too early for him.

Surely he could've just paid attention to how successful it was when Luke Brattan and Anthony Caceras signed for Man City. Mooy is the outlier, not the model (and he came back to Australia after struggling in the UK and was mid 20s when he went back).

[Hughesy]

2 hours ago, Carns said:

What a dud Arzani has turned out to be. Apparently has a terrible attitude and can't get game time.

Unpopular opinion: Arzani was overhyped and never lived up to it cause he simply wasn’t as good as people made out. His injury was a convenient excuse and he would’ve failed regardless cause he was nowhere near ready for regular senior football. He is the perfect example of what every youngster in the aleague should NOT ever do.

Try saying that on social media to all his fanboys lol it’s like sharks feeding on a whale carcass...

[Carns]

13 minutes ago, hughsey said:

Unpopular opinion: Arzani was overhyped and never lived up to it cause he simply wasn’t as good as people made out. His injury was a convenient excuse and he would’ve failed regardless cause he was nowhere near ready for regular senior football. He is the perfect example of what every youngster in the aleague should NOT ever do.

Try saying that on social media to all his fanboys lol it’s like sharks feeding on a whale carcass...

Definitely overhyped. The kid went overseas before he'd ever done anything of note. He got stars in his eyes rather than knuckling down and doing the hard work. Maybe he'll come back to Australia (he's just finished his loan deal in Denmark) and if he were smart he'd work his arse off to actually play consistently and try to dominate in Australia first before ever considering overseas.

[Upthehill]

3 hours ago, Carns said:

What a dud Arzani has turned out to be. Apparently has a terrible attitude and can't get game time.

Terrible attitude according to coaches. But he’s a very respectable kid. He got a 99ATR equivalent at school. He’s definitely a smart kid. He just hasn’t focused his energy where the general football public wants him to.

My understanding is he’s very much of the opinion that there’s more to life than football and that hasnt sat well with some coaches.

He owes nothing to football fans. If he’s happy with his direction it’s all that matter

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Upthehill

[theguyyouwishyouwere]

On 31/05/2021 at 9:06 PM, theguyyouwishyouwere said:

Les Murray!

Frank Lowy

[sonar]

So as we come to what may well be our last game time to have a say on the Player of the Season.......for me...........

Ziggy Gordon..... Senior Player

Mark Natta..... Junior Player

followed by Kamau and then Margush

Edited June 1, 2021 by sonar

[Keithie]

Could not pick a defender after conceding the amount of goals we have. 

Bruce Kamau is my pick as player of the season , the rest don't matter.

 

[WSWJACK]

No question Brucie player of the season for me, he was stand out, no one else should be in front of him.

[Sithslayer1991]

Yea Bruce produced a season where he played out his skin and reminded me of the old Kamau back in Adelaide that we had been wishing for. In saying that it wasn't enough for team to get into finals and we could see Kamau leave overseas because of it.

If that were to happen (not saying it would happen but already rumours a few Asian clubs are interested) the club should really look into getting Matt Leckie to the club.

[sonar]

The reason I chose Ziggy was that he started every game (25 ) and put in, for an average of 87 min per game on the pitch. True Kamau has had a good season also but played 22 games and started only 11 games with an average of just over 51 min per game on the pitch.

[Zakman]

13 hours ago, Carns said:

Definitely overhyped. The kid went overseas before he'd ever done anything of note. He got stars in his eyes rather than knuckling down and doing the hard work. Maybe he'll come back to Australia (he's just finished his loan deal in Denmark) and if he were smart he'd work his arse off to actually play consistently and try to dominate in Australia first before ever considering overseas.

We definitely do have a tendency to over hype young players. A couple of good games and they are already Australia's future stars. The same thing seems to be happening with Alou Kuol. He scored a few  goals at the start of the season and signed with Stutgart for next season and has pretty much done nothing since with the Mariners. I don't know if it is part of the "heap praise on the young" attitude or we are just hungry and impatient for the next Kewell!

Edited June 2, 2021 by Zakman

[Hughesy]

Questions need to be asked about who is advising these players (I’m not talking about agents). It’s career suicide majority of the time.

[Hughesy]

1 hour ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Yea Bruce produced a season where he played out his skin and reminded me of the old Kamau back in Adelaide that we had been wishing for. In saying that it wasn't enough for team to get into finals and we could see Kamau leave overseas because of it.

If that were to happen (not saying it would happen but already rumours a few Asian clubs are interested) the club should really look into getting Matt Leckie to the club.

Even less reason to be going anywhere near Asia with the latest incident involving Jason Davidson and the Korean clubs having power to send players to other clubs as they please. The whole region is an absolute minefield. 

[Westiesarebesties]

17 hours ago, Carns said:

What a dud Arzani has turned out to be. Apparently has a terrible attitude and can't get game time.

I heard the complete opposite of him, at least at Celtic. He had pushed his way into first team time due to training hard and if not for his injury, where he showed some promise coming on, I think we’d be saying very different things about him at this stage. He doesn’t seem to turn as sharply any more from what little I’ve seen

[Westiesarebesties]

2 hours ago, sonar said:

The reason I chose Ziggy was that he started every game (25 ) and put in, for an average of 87 min per game on the pitch. True Kamau has had a good season also but played 22 games and started only 11 games with an average of just over 51 min per game on the pitch.

I agree Ziggy maybe, but in saying that when our defence was our weakest point it can be hard to award our best player one of those defenders. Yes he did well, put that effort in but how much looking back was covering for his or others mistakes. If our defence was more solid he wouldn’t be having to make those desperate saves.

Margush is someone I could get behind for POTS. Kamau if he had of shown his form all season, first half he only showed it off the bench. When he started earlier on he didn’t do too well, made it seem like he was only an impact player (a great one though). Now by the end of the season he has cemented his starting spot.

[Carns]

37 minutes ago, Westiesarebesties said:

I heard the complete opposite of him, at least at Celtic. He had pushed his way into first team time due to training hard and if not for his injury, where he showed some promise coming on, I think we’d be saying very different things about him at this stage. He doesn’t seem to turn as sharply any more from what little I’ve seen

I heard on the Shim, Spider and so much Moore pod (more than once) that he had a poor attitude (admittedly after Celtic) and would struggle to get game time/contracts due to this. The inference was that he was arrogant and/or not willing to put the work in at a "lower level".

He hasn't kicked on at all. Maybe the injury curtailed him?

[JustWandering]

Dimi Petratos's Saudi team has just been relegated to the 2nd division this week. Don't know where that leaves his contract, which still has a year to run. He is with the Avid Sports Group player agency and has played under CR at Newcastle. I rate Dimi highly. He has played well in the few chances he has had with the Socceroos. Holding his position as a foreigner at Al Wehda suggests he played well there, albeit in a bottom of the table team. I think Newcastle missed him big time this season. I'd be happy if he signed with us.